Clara Haberkamp

It has taken courage to do what pianist Clara Haberkamp has done here – but, there again, a certain boldness is undeniably in her character. Whereas previous albums in her own name have featured her as vocalist and as poet/lyricist, “Reframing the Moon” is the first on which she is to be heard purely as an instrumentalist. It has been a conscious decision, and from the evidence of this remarkable, delightful and many-faceted album, it feels like the right one. 

Rather than reducing her means of expression, she has actually found new ones. The very particular lessons in how to communicate that singers and lyricists learn are clearly still all there. Most noticeably there is her near-magical ear and gift for melody. She also has a particularly acute sense of how to set – and also to change – mood, and along with that goes an astonishing awareness of contrast. Yes, there are sophisticated and dense moments, but they are always counterbalanced by heart-melting moments of simplicity. Here is a musician who quite palpably experiences joy and delight in the challenge of thinking in complex ways, whether it be about asymmetric meters, or finding resolutions to sophisticated games of counterpoint…but she also knows how to feel, to go straight to the listener’s emotions. 

We also hear a spellbinding sensitivity for instrumental colour and resonance: as well as the piano, she also plays on Rhodes on one track here; she is to be heard on both piano and Rhodes on another; she is also the composer of all the tracks but one. There are also the advantages of the instinctive understanding she shares with long term trio partners Tilo Weber on drums and Oliver Potratz on bass. Their common feel for pacing, flow and balance are constantly breath-taking. From the very start of the album, “Firmament”, we hear a supremely self-assured ability to contrast the weighty and the whisper. One track which seems to sum up the virtues of this album is “Mein Herz ist unterwegs” (my heart is travelling). It was somehow unsurprising to discover that this tune is actually based on a love poem whose emotional centre seems to define the touching directness of Clara Haberkamp’s music. These words capture the strong appeal of an irresistible album. “Mein Herz ist unterwegs / Am Horizont der Nacht / Vermut’ ich dein Gesicht  / Hüll’ mich ein wie ein Gedicht” (My heart is on the road / On the horizon of the night / I imagine your face / Enfold me like a poem)

Clara Haberkamp, now 31, still vividly remembers the first jazz concert she played. She was just eleven years old. It was at the Jazzclub Domicil in Dortmund, the closest city to her hometown of Unna, and she was taking part in a performance by the regional prize-winners of the “Jugend Jazzt” (youth plays jazz) competition.
The following years brought many, many more prizes, distinctions and- as she is the first to acknowledge – fantastic opportunities. In some respects this might be expected, because the region of North Rhine Westphalia has set such a superb example in providing structures of long-term support for its young musicians over many decades. But even in this context, it is hard to avoid the strong impression that Clara Haberkamp was singled out as a very special talent from an early age. She has certainly been working at the very top level for a surprisingly long time.
As the pianist of the NRW regional youth orchestra, she toured Southeast Asia, Israel, Estonia and Malta. She occupied the piano chair in the German National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and her tenure of that position culminated in a particularly big occasion, captured on video (LINK) . She played the Orchestra’s 25th anniversary concert with Kurt Elling.
She is from a very musical family: her parents are both saxophonists, and Clara’s mother, llona Haberkamp is also the biographer of one of the great female icons in the history of German jazz, pianist Jutta Hipp. Both her parents encouraged her to develop a broad interest in music. And gender never presented any problems, for which she acknowledges gratitude: “I was brought up on a very equal footing – it was never really an issue that I was a girl. It was always about quality and never about posing, making assumptions and pre-judging.”
She has been leading her own trio since 2010. Its first appearance was at the invitation of Sedal Sardan, of Berlin’s A-Trane Club, to mark Herbie Hancock’s birthday, and the group has been attracting plaudits almost since its inception. It won the Newcomer Award (the IB.SH-Förderpreis) at the 2011 Jazz Baltica Festival.

There have been teachers and important mentors along the way, notably the American-born vibraphonist David Friedman, who taught her at Jazz Institut Berlin and who has been, and continues to be, a consistent supporter and advocate right from the beginning of her studies as an 18-year-old.
Her association with academia has continued, and she is now on the teaching staff of not just one but two higher education faculties in Berlin. She is also doing a doctorate, supported by funding from the Claussen-Simon-Stiftung. Her doctorate is not a theoretical but more a practical venture, and is involved with helping school teachers to integrate instrumental improvising into teaching in general and into class singing in particular. This work provides an extra source of motivation: “I like the fact that it brings the practical and artistic sides into real-life contexts,” she explains.
She also has a very strong feeling that she has recently been changing as a player. “What I did before was more the impressionistic way of playing, colours and moods; I have been called a ‘mood player’”. And although she is not like to lose that sensitivity, there is now much more focus on keeping the continuity of voice-leading. Another change is that, having been a singer/lyricist as well as pianist, her new album will be purely instrumental, although she does play both grand piano and Fender Rhodes, sometimes both simultaneously, developing fascinatingly complex contrapuntal threads.
Her eloquent remarks about her own experience as a woman in jazz fit well in the context of this International Women’s Day Feature , but what resonates above all is her underlying sense of positivity and energy as a musician.
“My general opinion about women in jazz is this: it is important as a woman in jazz to be clear about what you can do and what is musically possible. And this certainty about one’s own quality, one’s own strengths, makes it easier to work with male colleagues. I think this day is important because it reminds us of the achievements of our predecessors on which we can now build.”